Louisiana Health Insurance

 Overview

If you live in Louisiana and either buy your own health insurance or are currently uninsured, this guide is for you. It will help you:

 Determine whether you qualify for a tax credit to help you pay for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare)

 Compare private health plans using U.S. News & World Report's health insurance ratings for Louisiana

If you are enrolling in an Obamacare insurance plan through Healthcare.gov, your state's exchange, or a broker, the official 2015 Open Enrollment period is from November 15, 2014 through February 15, 2015.

Do I Have To Buy Health Insurance?

You may have heard that everyone in Louisiana must have health insurance in 2015 or pay a penalty – Obamacare's so-called “individual mandate.” With a few exceptions, this is true.

For 2015, not carrying insurance will cost $325 per adult plus $162.50 per child (up to $975 per family) or 2 percent of your family’s income, whichever is more.

U.S. News generally recommends getting health insurance of some kind, even if it is only catastrophic coverage. That's because unexpected medical expenses can easily bankrupt anyone who is uninsured.

Learn more about why it's important to sign-up for health insurance

Understand more about the Obamacare tax penalty

If your health insurance policy was cancelled in fall 2014, call your insurer to verify whether your plan is still available.


For more details,VISIT : http://health.usnews.com/health-insurance/louisiana

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Federal Legislation to Repeal Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) Introduced

Federal Legislation to Repeal Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) Introduced

Equal Treatments of Public Servants Act was introduced by Kevin Brady, representative of Texas and Richard Neal , representative of Massachussets last week.  If passes, this bill would help in abolishing the Social Secutiry Windfall Elimination Provision(WEP). This shall be then replaced by a fairer formula which will help those who have had a negative impact by the WEP.

Already, members of Texas Retired Teachers Associatiaon(TRTA) has been advocating for the abolishment of WEP by the Congress.

The abolishing of WEP will result in                     

• ·         Public servants shall be considered like rest of American workers.
• ·         Public servants are guaranteed to receive benefits that had been earned by them whilethe Social Security was paid by them.
• ·         WEp will be reduced  by one third for currently retired personnel and upto to half for future retirees.
• ·         This will not have any impact on Social Security trust fund.

This site was last updated on 20th November 2014.

To know more visit http://www.rseala.org/category/latest-news/

An Application(App) for creating Home Inventory

An App for creating Home Inventory

Your home and  its contents are truly valuable. Their value should never be underestimated. By taking a walk around your house will make you realize the plight you will be in if you are stripped of these belongings. Unfortunately, if such a thing happens, then the cost to replace is going to be large. Also trying to memorize everything content in the house hold is also going to be difficult.

When a catastrophe such as a fire,storm or burglary occurs, then we realize the necessity of an inventory list which in turn shall help us in accounting for all the lost and damaged property.This will also prove to be helpful to your homeowners insurance claims purpose.

While making claim for property loss or damage, the more the evidence and information you provide, the faster and easier your claims shall be processed.

Home Inventory List  Creation – Tips

1.       Putting  a system in place – Even though you may feel the task is a daunting one initially, dividing the rooms and the content in each shall make your job easier

2.       Be specific-For each item, include corresponding description. For eg, the make & model of your music system or the quantity of books shall definitely make a difference.

3.       Costly items to be recorded – Items lbelonging  to  jewellery, artwork or technology, should be recorded in the inventory list and within your insurance coverage. Do not fail to take help of local agents to know more about individual homeowners  policy covers.

4.       Save Receipts- Keeping  your receipts helps in identifying the date of purchase and cost of items thus making the process easier for yourself and your insurance company.

5.       Photographs- A picture of your room with important items can be used as a vital evidence. The same purpose is served by taking a video of the room too.

6.       Backup List – Be ready with a backup in the eventa of a misplaced or missing inventory. An extra copy of this can be saved in a deposit box or in friend/relatiave’s  house.

7.       Update the list – Always update the list when you ar purchasing a new item or removing and old one.

State, federal insurance sites - first-day hiccups

State, federal insurance sites - first-day hiccups

On Saturday 15^th November 2014, the open enrollment on federal HealthCare.goc started in a smooth way. Some areas reported a problem of logging in into accounts  by consumers and brokers.

It has been reported that more than 23,000 people submitted application in the initial eight hours. As the federal log in issues appeared to be resolved, issues related to state run sites started by Saturday afternoon.

There was a mixed response across the U.S state –run exchanges regarding their success in enrolling people. But the report from brokers of Health Insurance Store, Louisiana in Baton Rouge was different. They were unable to log into their accounts until 1pm Saturday.

CEO for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange ,Richard Onizuka, , said in a statement that the staff of The Exchange and Department of Social & Health Services will work together closely to come to a solution, and are hoping to have the site back up very soon.

To know more on this you can visit 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/15/open-enrollment-healthcaregov-affordable-care-act-site-performance/19085637/

Health Insurance Costs for State workers lowered-Louisiana

Health Insurance Costs for State workers lowered-Louisiana

Governor Bobby Jindal administration has said that it will try ways to reduce the impact of newly added changes for the state worker health insurance program. This decision comes after lawmakers and retirees have put great deal of pressure on the administration

Out-of-pocket costs and deductibles for employees have been reduced by 10% whereas the increase of the same planned for the retired people from  March 1 have been stopped. The trade-off premiums are set to rise by 11% for both the retirees and employed by July1.

Retirees and employees have unanimously said that they prefer a hike in premium to massive increase in their our-of-pocket costs.

To know more about this piece of news visit http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2014/11/09/346332.htm  which has been last modified on Nov 9^th 2014

Flooding & Flood Risks

Flooding & Flood Risks

Flood map update schedule

https://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pages/flooding_flood_risks/map_update_schedule.jsp

The above given is the official link of National Flood Insurance Program(NFIP) got from its offiial site.
Just by entering your zip code, you can  know about the flood insurance and flood risk information in your zip code,
community, and county.
 Even if your community is not listed, some changes may still be underway.
For the latest updates do keep visiting this site. The last modification in this page was done on Oct 31st 2014.

Illinois Lawmakers Reject Firearm Liability Insurance Bill

The Illinois House has rejected a measure that would require $1 million in liability insurance for people carrying concealed weapons.

Lawmakers voted 34-74 against Rep. Kenneth Dunkin’s plan. It was among seven amendments on gun issues that legislators debated Tuesday as they consider a court-ordered law allowing conceal-and-carry.Read more..

(Ref: Insurance Journal, March 21, 2013)